It finally happened! We have an early Christmas present. Powered by Linux kernel 6.17 and built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS has arrived, marking the first stable release of the COSMIC desktop environment and closing more than three years of development at System76.
“Today is special not only in that it’s the culmination of over three years of work, but even more so in that System76 has built a complete desktop environment for the open source community. We’re proud of this contribution to the open source ecosystem.”
Carl Richell, System76 Founder and CEO
Built entirely in Rust and designed as a modular, composable environment, COSMIC introduces a faster interface, improved responsiveness, and a workflow centered on tiling, advanced workspaces, and streamlined navigation.
In fact, the arrival of the first stable release of the COSMIC desktop environment can, without exaggeration, be called the open-source event of the year in desktop computing. A brand-new, fully functional environment built from scratch, backed by a company like System76 and clearly designed for the long term, hasn’t happened in a very long time.
Moreover, COSMIC has all the ingredients to meaningfully challenge the long-standing dominance of KDE and GNOME. While KDE occupies a somewhat different niche both visually and functionally, the GNOME ecosystem is the one most likely to see users migrate to COSMIC.
The reason is straightforward: everything GNOME lacks and forces you to use extensions (inviting a compatibility battle twice a year) comes built in with COSMIC. It restores a sense of normalcy while also delivering functionality that, in many areas, goes well beyond what GNOME provides.
The release also broadens Pop!_OS beyond x86_64. Version 24.04 LTS adds official ARM support, including compatibility with the System76 Thelio Astra and community hardware through Tow-Boot. Hybrid graphics are now handled automatically, with applications requesting the discrete GPU when needed and manual overrides available from the app menu.
Installation is simplified with full-disk encryption by default and a new Refresh Install option that reinstalls the system while preserving user files, settings, and Flatpak applications.
COSMIC itself introduces a wide range of workflow improvements. Tiling can be toggled per workspace or per display and supports both mouse-driven and keyboard-driven rearrangement, with visual hints guiding placement.
Workspaces can be horizontal or vertical, pinned, moved between displays, or reordered entirely. Multi-display setups benefit from automatic scaling based on pixel density, persistent configuration, and clean fallback behavior when displays are unplugged.
Regarding customization, users can theme the desktop in Settings, choose between panel-plus-dock and single-panel layouts, and arrange applets, such as workspace indicators or system controls.
Navigation is faster through COSMIC Launcher, which opens with the Super key for app launching, switching, web searches, GitHub queries, calculations, and direct command execution. Window management expands with stacking, snapping, and sticky windows that remain on top and follow users between workspaces.
System76 also introduces rewritten applications tailored to the new environment, including COSMIC Files, COSMIC Store, COSMIC Terminal, COSMIC Text Editor, COSMIC Media Player, and COSMIC Screenshot. All are built in Rust, aiming to improve performance, safety, and responsiveness across the desktop.
For users on Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS, upgrade notifications will begin rolling out in January 2026. Those wishing to upgrade immediately can do so via the pop-upgrade release upgrade -f command after backing up their data.
For more information, see the announcement. You can get the latest stable Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS images from the official System76 download page.
Lastly, in the coming days and weeks, the major rolling-release distributions are expected to ship the first stable version of the COSMIC desktop in their repositories. COSMIC-based spins should also begin appearing across the major fixed-release editions. So, it will be interesting to watch how widely Linux users adopt the new desktop environment.
I like Gnome and with the extensions i can get it were i want it to be, but without, i wouldn’t probably using it and give XFCE the hand.
Cosmic Desktop had me directly from the beginning. It’s a fresh breeze, very nice, very professional.
Thanks System76. amazing work! The same applies to Bobby 🙂
Dropped Gnome a while back for Cosmic (still in Alpha back then). It relieved me of all the discomfort I felt about Gnome mentality and freed me from their close-mindedness and arrogance.
It’s been a very long time I hadn’t been using my computer like this, with no nonsense, and just focusing on my workflow in a way I feel empowered.
It is stunning what System76 has achieved.
Long live Cosmic!